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The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the internationalisation of Australian auditing standards by analysing the submissions to the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board's (AUASB) strategic directions paper (SDP) and comparing the proposed and approved strategic directions frameworks of the AUASB.

A content analysis of the submissions to the SDP is conducted to identify the extent of support, and arguments for and against the proposed strategic directions. This study attempts to find a link, if any, between the proposed strategic directions, the views expressed by the stakeholders, and the final set of strategic directions issued by Australia's Financial Reporting Council.

Overall, the final set of strategic directions released in April 2005 are consistent with the views expressed in the submissions, which support minimal divergence from International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and using the ISAs as the base for developing Australian auditing standards. Major changes from the SDP include a requirement for the AUASB to undertake research and monitor auditing standards issued by national standard setters. However, the AUASB is no longer obliged to contribute to the international standard arena and need only have regard to any program initiated by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.

The findings of this study provide an insight into the future of Australia's role in the international arena and increase awareness of stakeholders' views on the international harmonisation of auditing standards.

While there have been several studies examining the international harmonisation of accounting standards, there is comparatively little research on the international harmonisation of auditing standards. This paper attempts to address this void, in part, and contribute to the literature on the convergence of auditing standards with ISAs.

This chapter examines China’s corporate governance and accounting environment that shapes the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards. Specifically, it examines international influences, including supranational organizations; foreign investors and international accounting firms; domestic institutional influences, including the political system, economic system, legal system, and cultural system; and accounting infrastructure. China’s convergence is driven by desired efficiency of the corporate sector and legitimacy of participating in the global market. Influenced heavily by international forces in the context of globalization, corporate governance and accounting practices are increasingly becoming in line with internationally acceptable standards and codes. While convergence assists China in obtaining legitimacy, improving efficiency is likely to be adversely affected given that corporate governance and accounting in China operate in an environment that differs considerably from those of Anglo-American countries. An examination of the corporate governance and accounting environment in China suggests heavy government involvement within underdeveloped institutions. While the Chinese government has made impressive progress in developing the corporate governance and accounting environment for the market economy, China’s unique institutional setting is likely to affect how the imported concepts are interpreted and implemented.

This chapter presents an approach for teaching divergent and evolving auditing standards in an introductory auditing course. The existence of divergent and continually evolving auditing standards can be challenging for students and for auditing educators. In addition to two separate sets of standards in the United States for the audits of public companies (issuers) and nonpublic companies (nonissuers), auditors also need to be aware of the growing prominence of international standards. In addition to providing background information on standard-setting bodies and divergent auditing standards, and suggestions for simplifying the process of guiding students to an understanding of these standards, this chapter provides figures that can be used for demonstration in class, along with a series of brief internet-based research exercises. The exercises and examples provided may help auditing educators to facilitate students’ understanding and mastery of the fundamental elements of the domestic and international auditing standard-setting forces and activities that impact, directly or indirectly, auditing practice in the United States and abroad.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the new, revised International Standard on Auditing (Revised ISA700) in terms of the wording characteristics of Tunisian auditors' reports.

Measurement of the compliance of auditors' reports issued by Tunisian auditors with the new revised International Standard on Auditing (Revised ISA700).

It was found that the audit reports examined are not fully compliant with all the elements enumerated by the new standard issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

This paper provides new empirical evidence about the level of compliance with the revised ISA700. It discusses the limits on standardisation efforts for national auditors' reports, and the implications for accounting firms and their audit clients.

IFAC, a Swiss‐registered non‐governmental organization, is emerging as an important international (auditing) standard setter amongst a powerful group of regulators, including the World Bank, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the European Commission (EC). The purpose of this paper is to focus on the changing governance and accountability structures within IFAC, the way such changes are shaping, or re‐shaping, its “public interest” commitments and the resulting strategic implications for processes of auditor regulation and public oversight in the global financial arena.

The material and analysis presented in the paper derives from an extensive review of official reports, consultation documents and related responses, a range of other information available on IFAC's web site (www.ifac.org) or those of other key regulatory players in the global financial arena.

The paper analyzes how IFAC is succeeding as an international standard setter with an established place in the global financial infrastructure. From analysis of the recent establishment of a Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB) and the changing nature of representation on IFAC's Public Interest Activity Committees (PIACs), the paper reveals a growing reliance on governance by experts together with a growth in influence of the large, multinational accounting firms. Governance of auditors has become a matter of global importance and governance structures are being reconfigured.

By highlighting the changes that have taken place within IFAC's governance system, the paper establishes the importance for public policy of further study and debate concerning the nature and practical operation of such a system, particularly given IFAC's position within a complex but developing global governance arena.

IFAC is becoming an integral player in global financial governance processes and yet has not been subject to any substantial academic accounting research. This paper seeks to rectify this by focusing on the structures and processes underpinning both the development of IFAC's International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and its own global strategy for advancement.

This study aims to investigate the impact of the adoption of international accounting and auditing standards on corruption perception. In addition, this study examines the strength of auditing and reporting standards (SARS) that mediate the relationship.

Agency theory and bonding theory were applied in this paper to investigate the impact of the adoption of international accounting and auditing standards on corruption perception. Data from 130 countries during three years were collected from Transparency International, Worldwide Governance Indicators, International Federation of Accountants, World Economic Forum, World Bank, Freedom House and World Justice Project. Hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results show a positive impact of the adoption of international accounting and auditing standards on corruption perception, directly and indirectly, through the SARS.

The results provide an insight into corruption eradication strategy through the adoption of international accounting and auditing standards and strengthen the auditing and reporting standards.

This study is distinctive, as no study has yet examined the impact of the adoption of international accounting standards construct, which contains International Financial Reporting Standards and International Standards on Auditing, on the corruption perception. The corruption perception construct is developed by combining the corruption perception index and the control of corruption indicators.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of harmonization of consolidated auditors’ reports issued by the independent auditors of Islamic banks.

A statistical measurement of the homogenization of the consolidated auditors’ reports of Islamic banks. International and Islamic auditing standards on consolidated auditors’ reports are used as the control (ISA 700 and AAOIFI standard-IAS2).

The results show a lack of harmonization among the Islamic bank’s groups in several elements related to the form of the consolidated auditor’s report and in all elements related to the independent auditor’s report.

This paper provides new empirical evidence about the measurement of harmonization in the form and content of the consolidated auditors’ reports of Islamic banks groups. It discusses the level of compliance with the consolidated elements enumerated by the standards issued by the International Federation of Accountants and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the understandability of the illustrations provided by the International Federation of Accountants in terms of the structural features of international auditors’ reports with modified opinions.

Measurement of the legibility of reports illustrated by the revised ISA 705 and ISA 706. This paper discusses the compliance level of modified auditors’ reports with the linguistic rules.

It was found that the standardized illustrations of modified reports are not fully understandable by users of financial statements. The illustrations of modified auditors’ reports are not compliant with several linguistic rules.

This paper provides new original investigation about the linguistic features of illustrations provided by the ISA 705 and ISA 706. This paper discusses the level of unintelligibility of standardized auditors’ reports and the implications for stakeholders.

This paper investigates whether board gender diversity and the strength of auditing and reporting standards are associated with analysts' forecast accuracy and whether the strength of auditing and reporting standards moderates the association between board gender diversity and analysts' forecast accuracy.

The sample covers 24,086 firm-year observations from 37 countries from 2009 to 2018. The data were obtained from various sources: earnings forecast data from the Institutional Brokers' Estimate System (IBES) database; board gender diversity and financial data from Thomson Reuters Fundamentals; and country-level data from World Economic Forum database. The authors measure board gender diversity using four proxies namely, the proportion of women directors on the board, a dummy variable for board with at least one women director, BLAU measurement corresponds to the proportion of group females and males using the formula adopted from the Hirschman-Herfindahl index (Hirschman, 1964) and the proportion of the number of women executives over the total number of directors. The study also uses a series of specification tests using alternative measures for each variable and controlling the global financial crisis and endogeneity issue.

Firms with higher board gender diversity have higher analysts' forecast accuracy. Compared to countries with weak auditing and reporting standards, the authors find firms in countries with strong auditing and reporting standards have more accurate forecasts. Further, the positive relationship between the board gender diversity and analysts' forecast accuracy is weaker for firms in countries with strong auditing and reporting standards, as compared to firms in countries with weak auditing and reporting standards.

This study found new evidence on the effect of women directorships on analyst forecasts and this relationship varies between levels of the strength of auditing and reporting standards, which was not addressed in prior studies.

This study highlights the importance of strengthening the policy on getting more women on board and the continuous efforts to enhance the strength of auditing and reporting standards of a country as valuable strategies to enhance the quality of analyst forecasts.

This is the first study that employs the international dataset to examine the moderating effect of the strength of auditing and reporting standards on the relationship between board gender diversity and analysts' forecast accuracy.